Nokia Map Apps Soon on iOS, Android and Firefox OS

Peter Skillan and Michael Halbherr on the stage at the Nokia event in San Francisco

Nokia today in San Francisco announced new developments for its Location and Commerce division with the upcoming availability of a native mapping application for iOS and a software development kit (SDK) for Android.

In addition to that Nokia also announced a partnership with Mozilla to bring its LBS platform to the nascent Firefox OS ecosystem.

This horizontal move of Nokia Location and Commerce to third party operating systems is wrapped in a rebranding of its LBS and mapping platform as HERE.

“The ethos of HERE is to be personal, immersive and actionable,“ said Peter Skillan, the head of design at Nokia Location & Commerce.

HERE Maps for iOS
The iOS mapping app (HERE Maps) is scheduled to be available for free download from Apple's App Store in the coming weeks. It will include offline capabilities, turn-by-turn, voice-guided pedestrian navigation, public transport navigation, but no turn-by-turn in-car navigation. This iOS app will be monetized through advertising (Groupons offers are an example) and transactions.

Android SDK
The Android SDK said to be available in the first quarter of 2013 will be offered to smartphone and tablet manufacturers as an alternative to Google Maps and monetized through licensing agreements.

In its partnership with Mozilla, Nokia plans to debut a mobile Web (HTML5) version of HERE Maps for the new Firefox OS next year.

Analysis
With these announcements Nokia Location and Commerce is executing its plan announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year to become a global provider of a full LBS platform that include content (maps, POIs, traffic, etc.) and the software and cloud components to run this data on every platform.